As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Specific absorption rate (SAR) refers to the rate at which radio frequency (RF) energy is absorbed by the human body, and is used to measure the power absorbed from mobile wireless devices such as cell phones, tablet computers, and notebook computers. Many government agencies around the world have set maximum allowable SAR value limits for such mobile devices when in use. To conform RF emissions to these SAR limits while at the same time maximizing wireless performance, a mobile device has been provided with a single capacitive proximity sensor that detects close proximity of an object such as a human body. A processor within the mobile device has then been used to reduce wireless RF transmission power from the mobile device when the capacitive proximity sensor detects close proximity of a nearby object, but to allow higher RF transmission power in the absence of the detection of a nearby object.
Current methods and implementations for controlling SAR utilize a single capacitive proximity sensor to control only the power transmitted from the main WWAN/LTE transmit antenna of a wireless device, and employ a binary detection mechanism to control wireless RF transmission power based only on either detection or non-detection of a nearby object. Since the capacitive proximity sensor cannot reliably distinguish between a human body and a non-human object proximity trigger event, wireless transmission performance from the device can needlessly suffer when transmit power is reduced due to the detected nearby presence of a non-human object.